Personal Data Collection

– Most Lehigh Valley federal lawmakers are joining a chorus of concerns about how federal officials are responding to the Ebola crisis, calling for restricting travel from the affected countries and better coordination among agencies. Republican Reps. Lou Barletta, Mike Fitzpatrick and Charlie Dent have called for varying limits on who is coming into the country from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. Republican Sen. Pat Toomey says he also believes there should be tighter restrictions on travel from Ebola-stricken countries, and is seeking more information about why a travel ban has not been enacted. On the Democratic side, Rep. Matt Cartwright said he supports a travel ban,...

Related "Personal Data Collection" Articles

– Most Lehigh Valley federal lawmakers are joining a chorus of concerns about how federal officials are responding to the Ebola crisis, calling for restricting travel from the affected countries and better coordination among agencies.Republican Reps....

Retailer Sears Holdings Corp. said the payment data system at its Kmart Holding Corp. unit had been breached, and that certain debit and credit card numbers could have been compromised.
Discount chain Kmart is investigating the breach.
The...

A scam that's been plaguing the area since this time last year just won't go away and it's snagging more victims.
Con men posing as IRS agents have scared people nationwide out of $5 million under the guise they owe taxes or penalties. I've heard from...

Sands Bethlehem is arguably Pennsylvania's most successful casino, but new President Mark Juliano said the $800 million gambling complex will not be standing pat on its accomplishments.
Juliano, an elementary school teacher-turned casino executive who...

St. Thomas More's Prime Time group is organizing a trip to Mt. Airy Casino in the Poconos on Wednesday, Oct. 29. The cost is $20 for bus transportation and includes a $25 rebate for slot machine play and $10 food voucher. The bus departs St. Thomas More...

When I spoke with online security and identity theft expert Neal O'Farrell yesterday about the Home Depot data breach, he told me that a corporation's best security measures can be rendered useless by the slip-up of a single employee. What I got in the...

I returned from vacation this week to find one of those lovely letters at home alerting me that my personal information may have been stolen in the data breach that hit physicians affiliated with Community Health Systems.
The next day I heard about...

I've warned before how applying for loans online can expose you to all sorts of creeps, including fake debt collectors. Here's another recent example from Lower Saucon Township.
Township police said a person applied for a loan online and then got a phone...

News item in Thursday's edition of The Morning Call: Two brothers were released after spending more than 30 years in prison in North Carolina for crimes they never committed — the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl.
As reported in that and other...

There's nothing quite like jumping into a barrel and crushing virgin grapes to pulp while a crowd cheers you on.
As one member of a four-person media team that accomplished this feat with its feet Sunday at the Allentown Fair, crushing a team of...

When Jose Alicea left work on April 15, he thought that he was going to the last meeting of his 12-month probationary term. He told his boss he would be back shortly.
He was proud of the progress he made since he pleaded guilty to drug paraphernalia...

Much of the appeal of the Allentown Fair is how much remains dependably the same.
Its carnival rides and attractions (which still cover the largest part of the fairgrounds).
Its Labor Day run.
And especially its agricultural heritage, with livestock...

Andy Rodriguez of Allentown made nearly $3 million in less than two years by filing tax returns for other people.The problem, federal authorities say, is those people didn't know about it and the tax returns were fraudulent.Rodriguez, 26, pleaded guilty...

Personal information on a number of Easton Hospital patients — including their names and Social Security numbers — was stolen in a cybertheft that likely originated in China, the hospital's parent company announced Monday.
According to Community Health...

Three members of an Allentown group accused in an identity theft scam to steal more than $700,000 from the Internal Revenue Service appeared in federal court this week and two were sentenced to prison terms.Jose Peralta and Fayez Antonios were each...

Sometimes scammers try so hard to scare people into opening their wallets that they overdo it and lose their intended effect.
The email Birdine Remaley Jr. of Whitehall Township got recently is a good example.
It tried to be threatening and startled him...

PHILADELPHIA — The long, strange story of Dr. Erik von Kiel took a sinister turn Tuesday as his cellmate testified about the former Lehigh County Jail doctor's jailhouse talk of intimidating witnesses and assassinating a federal judge.Von Kiel, who is...

Two Pennsylvania congressmen on Thursday released pictures they say show boxes of mail that went unanswered for years at the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Regional Office.In a letter sent to a top VA official, U.S. Reps. Patrick Meehan (R., Delaware)...

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC) announced today that it has rescheduled its two Mentored Youth Fishing Days into one statewide date on May 10 because most of the waters where the events will be held remain covered in ice and aren’t expected to

The deadline is looming, so we'll reprint this announcement: With a less than two weeks to go before the end of open enrollment Lehigh Valley area residents will have an opportunity to get free, in-person help choosing new Affordable Care Act health insurance